Did a $330 Million Scam Fuel Monero’s (XMR) 50% Price Surge? (ZachXBT Weighs In)

A social engineering rip-off has resulted within the lack of over $330 million in BTC from an aged investor primarily based in the US.

The stolen quantity, totaling 3,520 BTC, was drained from a pockets that has been primarily inactive since 2017.

Particulars of The Exploit

In accordance with findings shared by blockchain detective ZachXBT on April 28, following the theft, the stolen crypto was moved via at the very least six centralized exchanges earlier than being transformed into Monero (XMR), a privacy-focused digital foreign money that makes monitoring transactions tough.

Additional, the big quantity of the transaction brought about the token’s value to spike by 50% on account of restricted liquidity.

The on-chain investigator later revealed that the sufferer was an aged particular person dwelling in the US. The theft came about over the weekend via a extremely misleading social engineering assault that led the goal to surrender entry to their pockets unknowingly.

Such scams usually use emails or cellphone calls to fraudulently extract private or confidential info.

Hackers Establish Stays Unknown

The investigation into the theft stays ongoing, with ZachXBT actively monitoring the state of affairs. He beforehand famous that the stolen BTC originated from “attention-grabbing” sources, elevating suspicions about how the funds had been initially acquired.

Additional, whereas some X customers speculated that North Korea’s Lazarus Group could have been concerned, the sleuth has dominated them out. He as a substitute instructed that impartial unhealthy actors had been the most certainly culprits.

This isn’t the primary main social engineering assault within the crypto house this yr. In February, ZachXBT additionally uncovered a scheme that concerned Coinbase customers getting their crypto stolen via such exploits. Between December 2024 and January 2025, these people collectively lost $65 million in such incidents.

General, the crypto business has been closely hit within the first quarter of 2025. In accordance with a current report by blockchain safety agency PeckShield, over $1.6 billion in digital belongings had been stolen via hacks through the interval. Most of these losses got here from the Bybit exploit, which accounted for greater than 92% of the full, making the case one of many largest crypto thefts on report.

In January, unhealthy actors made off with over $87 million, however February noticed a surge in exercise, with $1.53 billion stolen. Additional incidents added one other $126 million in losses, together with a $50 million exploit targeting Infini, a $9.5 million hack on zkLend, and an $8.5 million breach at Ionic.